The Townsend Bee Book 5 
that either the eight or ten frame hive will be adopted, containing 
frames of Langstroth dimensions. The hive that we would order 
is the regular dovetailed hive for comb-honey production, having 
a reversible bottom-board made of %-inch material. These bot- 
tom-boards are much superior to some that have been on the mar- 
ket in former years. We have used very similar one for the past 
twelve years, and know that they are good. The super of this 
hive should contain 414 x 4144 x 114-inch plain sections and fence 
separators. In my opinion, there is no better section on the mar- 
ket to-day than the 414 square plain section. 
If four good colonies of bees are bought the first season, and 
these colonies and the increase are to be put into new hives, about 
ten hives will be needed. There should be ten hive-bodies, ten 
covers, ten bottom-boards, and twenty supers; and all the inside 
furnishings should be included. The frame should be pierced, 
and the wire should be sent for wiring them. 
If the supers are used as we use ours, extracting-frames will 
replace the outside section-holders in each super. These frames 
are made the same size as the section-holders, but they have a top- 
bar. Both top and bottom bars are 7% inch wide, the top-bar being 
3% inch thick, and provided with a beveled groove and wedge for 
fastening the foundation. These extracting-frames should be 
pierced for two wires, and full sheets of thin super foundation 
should be used in them. 
As the supers, as ordered, do not include sections, 1000 414 x 
4, x 114-inch plain sections should be ordered. One would prob- 
ably not use a thousand the first year; but during a good year 
more than 500 would be necessary, and it is well to order sections 
in full packages. 
For supplying these sections with full sheets of foundation, 
about eight pounds of the extra-thin super foundation will be 
needed. 
Brood-frames should all be pierced for wiring. The piercing 
and the wire for wiring the frames costs about ten cents extra per 
hundred frames. Full sheets of medium brood foundation should 
be used, and it will take thirteen or fourteen pounds to fill one 
hundred frames. The use of starters in brood-frames is very poor 
economy. I have tried both starters and full sheets. 
There is no better uncapping-knife than the Improved Bing- 
ham. We order them made one inch longer than the regular size, 
but very good work ean be done with the knives of ordinary 
length. A Coggshall brush is very essential for freeing the combs 
of bees when extracting or at any other time. 
